Thicker Than Blood
by Trins xxx
Summary: A one-shot focusing on Tinkerbell's friendship with Regina, as Regina learns to deal with the idea of never seeing her son again. Because sometimes, water's thicker than blood...


**Disclaimer****: **I don't own Once Upon a Time. I wish I was making money from this but alas, I am not.

**Author's Note****: **So one of the things that I thought made Once Upon A Time Season 3 so much better than Season 1 was Regina's and Tinker Bell's history/friendship. It was so...Gossip Girl and so anti-White Hat vs Black Hat kind of thing. I just loved that they were shades of grey and ambiguous, acknowledging that it's not always good vs evil. And out of that love was born a fanfic, possibly developing into a series, that focuses predominantly on the friendship between Tinker Bell and Regina.

**Read and Review****: **Tell me what you love and tell me what you hate. Most importantly, tell me how to make it better. Or drop a line and just say hi, if nothing else.

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Thicker than blood

'_He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.'_

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

Tinker Bell isn't sure whether it has something to do with power or magic, but she and Blue are the first ones to overcome the effects of breaking the curse, which theoretically meant that Regina should have been up and about too.

She glanced around uncertainly, the tendrils of panic slowly taking root as she saw everyone as their Enchanted Forest counterparts but no Evil Queen in sight.

'She's over there,' Blue nodded to her right. Tinker Bell didn't pause to wonder how Blue knew what she was thinking (or was she just that transparent?) as she took off in a hurried jog in that direction, the panic slowly but surely growing within her.

It wasn't hard to find Regina in the end. The sound of sobs, soul crushing, body wrecking sobs, led easily to her and Tinker Bell had to force down the bile that had unknowingly risen into her mouth.

Life wasn't fair.

She's learned that one from personal experience. It wasn't fair that she'd just been trying to reach out to a lost and broken soul and got punished for it. It wasn't fair that even though she was right, everyone had made her doubt herself. It wasn't fair that she'd lost her wings because of someone else's fears and weaknesses and it wasn't fair that she had been stuck on Neverland when she had never done anything _wrong_ or _evil_ as such.

It was this that allowed her to empathise with Regina.

'Go away, Tink,' she said, her back to the fairy yet still somehow sensing her in the midst of her misery. Understandably, the fairy just ignored her, stepping forward cautiously, one at a time, the seeds of dread taking root easily in the panic that seemed to send the fairy's nerves buzzing.

'Tink, just go _away_,' she repeated, less force this time and with the slightest hint of despair, infecting Tinker Bell with the same emotion; panic, dread and despair made for a sickening mixture.

It wasn't fair for Regina to have her happy ever after killed by her mother, she thinks, as she gets closer.

'_Regina_...' Tink's voice is hoarse as it fades away, any other words inadequate to convey anything that she's feeling, nothing to what Regina must be feelings.

'Go _away_ Tinker Bell.' A small ball of fire erupts from her hands as she stands up. The fairy's eyes watch the flames, fascinated to find that they seem to melt away from Regina's form and she wonders, distantly, if maybe there's some sort of magic protecting the user from itself, at least in a physical sense. She watches her as she staggers to a stand, fists clenched tightly enough to cause pallor around her knuckles, and the dread becomes a little dizzying, maybe just the tiniest bit overwhelming.

It wasn't fair for Regina to be made a wife for a man old enough to be her father and mother to a stepdaughter less than ten years her junior.

The fairy blinked away tears as she continued to approach the queen, realising a little belatedly that her wings had returned. How strange it was that what was once most important to her had now faded into mostly insignificance, when faced with the heartbreak and self-sacrifice of a...yes, a friend. She tried to speak again. '_Regina_,' she forced the words around the lump in her throat.

'It's fine. _I'm_ fine,' Regina appeared to physically force the shuddering of her frame into submission. 'You can leave now. Check on the others,' she added as an afterthought, causing a wry smile on the blonde's face to appear. She wasn't concerned about anyone except the person right in front of her, she thinks as she feels the emotions result in a tango between bile and acid in her stomach, tempting her to open her mouth and let it all out.

It's not fair that Regina had been essentially abandoned in a large castle and isolated, most of the time from her husband and stepdaughter too.

'I know you will be, in time,' is what comes out of her mouth instead. Limp though the words are, she still cringes when Regina derisively snorts.

The subsequent silence wraps them in a strange sort of companionship, the darkness of the looming trees eerily quiet, absent of its usual noises of birds, preys, predators and critters. Despite the recent travel to Neverland, it felt alien compared to the world of Storybrooke that everyone had swiftly acclimatised to. It occurs to her that this is where everything began, the slow extraction of happiness from Regina's life. She's always been teetering on the edge of destruction and self-destruction and this could be the trigger for the nuclear implosion of her being...again.

It's not fair that Regina was ever desperate enough, _desolate_ enough, to jump (or fall) from a balcony.

'You have me...' The words are out there, heavy and suffocating as she waits carefully for Regina's response, only to find none. Her nerves are being gradually stretched to their breaking point when Regina finally turns around to face her, a blotchy mess left from the tears. It's morbid watching her slowly blink away any remnants of tears in her eyes, watching the pink splotches of colour slowly fade away, till nothing's left of her emotional breakdown other than a reddened nose and the faintest of tear trails. It's like watching Dostoevsky in action, turning wretchedness and misery into something that could function, even if it is at the bare minimum of existence.

She watches the back straighten from its stooped posture and the head gradually tilts back, in a manner reminiscent of true royalty and Tinker Bell inwardly marvels at such a display, such majesty in the midst of tragedy.

'We should head back,' is all she says, offering no reply to the fairy's proffered friendship but she isn't really surprised.

What is a friendship when faced with the permanent loss of a son?

It's not fair that Regina finally found true love in the form of her son, only to lose him completely and utterly, in order to save him and everyone else?

'Let's. Blue is up, some of the others were stirring but everyone seemed unharmed.' She pauses, before she decides to speak what was on her mind. The woman she sees in front of her, it scares her. She's terrified because she's seen this woman before. It was the woman who had jumped off her balcony and she doesn't want to see it happen again. 'Even if I am not your friend, you are still mine.'

She's turned her back to Regina, ready to walk back to the others when she hears the words, so softly spoken that she's not sure whether she was meant to hear it or not.

'Thanks, Tink. You're friendship is all I have left...'

It burns a hole that penetrates from her heart to her soul. They make their way back in silence, Regina lost in memories of a much beloved son and Tinker Bell wondering who the hell Blue had been to tell her that Regina was beyond salvation? Nobody deserves happy endings more than them, she thinks. And Regina, whatever evil she may have done, has sacrificed more than enough for the happiness and safety of others.

And maybe it isn't a happy ending, maybe there isn't a purely happy ending for Regina, with a son forever beyond her reach. But she could have a relatively happy ending, couldn't she? Starting with a friendship Tinker Bell was intent on keeping for life.


End file.
